


Shelled Guardians

by Forestfire1011



Category: TMNT - Fandom
Genre: 2003, 2014, Angst, Couple, Cute, Donnie - Freeform, F/M, Hurt Raphael, Leo - Freeform, Love, Raph - Freeform, Raphael/Reader - Freeform, Reader-Insert, TMNT, TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles, Worried Raphael (TMNT), XReader, boyfriend - Freeform, mikey - Freeform, missing-reader, raph/reader - Freeform, raphaelxreader - Freeform, relationship, tmnt2003 - Freeform, tmnt2014 - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-20
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 21:28:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26554351
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forestfire1011/pseuds/Forestfire1011
Summary: After the Shredder took over New York City, everything fell into chaos. With you and master splinter missing, the four turtles face the struggles of trying to find you both, and figure out a way to taken down Shredder for good. The boys can barely sleep and eat knowing that you are missing, that you weren’t in their reach. Raphael balances on the tight rope of sanity, his need to find you quickly becomes desperate. With unknown feelings falling into the wrong time, could there possibly time for love? And does Raphael really deserve it?
Relationships: Raphael (TMNT) & Reader, Raphael (TMNT)/Reader
Comments: 21
Kudos: 18





	1. Cold home

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are appreciated and do help motivate me to continue the story. I’m very new to this so if you want me to add any scenes I will take it into consideration. Enjoy!
> 
> Written about the 2014/2016 version of the turtles. But plot and scenes include parts from 2003 series

Chapter 1

Even though his eyes glared at the road ahead of him with undying fire, his mind could barely register that he was indeed driving along the Brooklyn bridge. His mind was too far gone, swirling with thoughts of locations where you could be. Every inch of this broken city was left searched. After the shredder took over, it was hardly a place you could call a city, New York had long gone down with its tall buildings, now rubble. Make shift homes for mutants and humans surviving every day with whatever they could trade and find in trash bins. It was shredders paradise, a kingdom he could finally rule.

Raphael snapped out of his thoughts as the end of the bridge grew meters away. The motorbike’s engine lowered its hum as the alley way came in sight, with every second that past more guilt and dread drowned him, the ground opened up, creating a run way down into the sewers. And just like that, Raph was already walking up to the turtles hide out. 

His whole body froze, hidden in the hall leading up to the open space ‘living room’. He didn’t want to walk in empty handed again. How many times his mind dreamed of walking home with you by his side, his father following behind, or at least a slither of a clue to where you and master splinter where. Had the fight between him and his brothers against the shredder had succeeded, New York wouldn’t be in an apocalyptic state, and you and his father would be home safe probably all eating pizza together. 

His whole body grew more heavy, created by his dread and also the exhaustion of searching all day. It had been a year since the fight happened, since you and master splinter were taken, and life hasn’t never been ever further from what life used to be. Raph’s shell hit the wall, his head raising up to look at the ceiling before lighting a cigarette. The soft red glow of the end of the cigarette lit up the shadow he stood in. The snake like smoke twisted around the air as if it was it’s prey, finally finding its place inside his lungs. For a moment there was a moment of peace, a moment that melted as fast as it came. 

“You’re home late” his older brother’s voice called. Without Raph’s eyes moving from the ceiling that suddenly became so interesting, a sigh left him.

“Yeah what’s new.” Raph felt his brother near.

The leader in blue gave a sad smile towards his hotheaded brother knowing there’s not any new leads. He waited for a moment, letting the heavy silence fill in the open space. Leo had always seen you as their littler sister. You were part of their family and they could never imagine life without you, but since last year they were now living that nightmare. 

“Food is on the table,” Leo chirped, fully knowing Raph hadn’t eaten that night. Whilst the Red turtle nodded, the last puff of smoke left his lips and the orange glow of the cigarette fell. Landing by his feet, he treaded on it killing its life. 

Making their way into the living room they heard their youngest brother Mikey, the turtle in orange, skating around that same old lair, seeming to try and distract himself. But the wheels came to a immediate stop, scraping the concrete, his eyes growing immediately hopefully as he saw his older brother had returned hopefully with news about you and master splinter. But that didn’t last long since he caught the side eye look Leo and Raph both gave him. Almost as if they both were apologetic for not finding anything. 

The cardboard box was opened slowly, inside were the rations for the week. The box had been given at the trade market, the only place left for surviving people and mutants to trade their valuables for food. The whole trade market was a mess, make shift stalls made with ripped old cloth. A lot of people now took refuge there in make shift tents. Donnie couldn’t rip his eyes away from looking at the box, anger filling his heavy heart, he hated thinking this is what life had come to for everyone. Surviving off of out of date tin cans of soup, people living in fear from the foot soldiers taking their loved ones away or their lives, he couldn’t help but just partly blame himself for not doing better at defeating the shredder. 

“Donnie. You’re doing it again.” 

“Hm?” The purple turtle looked up seeing his brothers come into the kitchen.

“You shouldn’t keep blaming yourself for what has happened. Right now we need to keep focus on our plans.” The leader spoke up as he walked closer to Donnie before placing his hand onto his shoulder. 

“Right sorry. I was just wrapped up in thought.” The tall turtle lumped down into a chair feeling almost exhausted from thinking about everything.

Raphael stuck his hand into the worn out box, pulling out a damaged but still good can of cold tomato soup, he shoved it between his belt and shell, keeping it place so his hands would be free. He was starving after another day of searching, his muscles aching from climbing so much. After grabbing the can he turned on his heels to walk to his room but stopped mid way as he heard his name get called by his older brother Leo. 

“Raph... we need to talk. Donnie and I have been talking recently about the plan.” He spoke with solidarity, keeping his eyes locked on his brother’s shell, his eyes glazing over all the scar like scrapes from all their missions over the years of their lives. 

With a small nod from Raph, it was enough to understand that he wanted Leo to keep talking. 

“We are leaving in 2 weeks...” 

“What!” The room didn’t have a chance to catch silence as Leo spoke up once more.

“We need to get to April’s cabin as soon as we can. We can barely hold up in this place anymore. Once we make a plan on how we are going to take down shredder for good then we will return. But we can’t wait any longer.” 

“So fearless leader in blue thinks fleeing this shit hole is going to solve our problems! You think sitting in a van and sneaking out of the state is going to help Master splinter and ghosty?!” A fire flared up on his eyes as he turned to face the two brothers, not realising Mikey had slowly entered the room hearing the new plan. 

“Raph. Sitting here in this place isn’t helping them either. We will be prepared and stronger when we have a proper plan created. We need to get there because every single day that passes the sewers become less home, and more dangerous. We become more vulnerable to shredders foot men.” The gap between the red and blue turtle slowly became smaller as it was quite clear they were ready to settle this argument like how they always have, by fighting. 

Mikey held up his hands onto Raphael’s chest whilst Donnie pulled on Leo’s arms, trying their best to keep the two from inching closer to rip each other’s throats out.

“I’ll take on every last fucking one of them! Fearless leader my ass, you’re more of a coward then you ever have been before! I’m fucking staying till we find them because unlike some asshole I actually give a shit about finding them! You’re always about ‘never leaving family behind’! So what the fuck are they to you!” 

“Thats enough Ralph!” Donnie called growing worry in his voice as Raph Pushed on some sensitive nerves.

“I actually go out there! Every single fucking day searching my shell off to find them both! Even a fucking clue to where they could be whilst you sit on your ass all day with your head in the clouds!” The growl in his voice grew louder as he ignored Donnie’s plead.

“I probably care way more about them then you ever fucking have! You always had to be dramatic and always start petty fights! Staying in your room whilst we all trained, when we hung out, when we all ate together. You missed every chance to spend time with them and now because your hotheaded ass feels guilty you want us to look bad by saying we don’t do anything! How can we fucking find them if we are dead!” Leo yelled matching the loud volume of his brother. For a moment Raph didn't bark back, instead he pushed Mikey away, enough to get him off.

“I rather try to find them till my last breath then run away.” And with those words, Raph walked away, just like Leo predicted. Even though they all were forced to mentally mature, he still saw how immature his younger brother could be. 

The door of his room slammed shut showing a clear sign to everyone that he was not going to come out for a while. Tonight was going to be a long one. 

A hour or two hour had past since the heated argument had ended. Raph had passed out on his bed, his leg hanging off the edge. On his nightstand stood the can of soup he had taken, one of his weapons stuck inside the now open container, he had used it to open the soup can. 

He didn’t want to admit it, but he had fallen asleep knowing his brother was right, who would keep searching for you if he was dead or captured. Plus he wasn’t really that selfish to put his brothers in danger by staying here fully knowing that foot were very much closing in on them every day. Loud snoring was never nothing new, he had always snored until you would come by and ask him in the middle of the night to quite down

Raph missed the way you would knock on his door, but after being too lazy to get up to answer the door, you still would walk in his room and ask him to quite down. He missed how tired your eyes would look from waking up, how the small annoyed look would remain on your face till he gave you a signal that he would silence down. Yes he would be tired from freshly waking up but he wouldn’t forget that face you would make after it happened like that almost every single night. 

But in all honesty, he promised himself, if-when you would be found, he promised he wouldn’t snore. He wouldn’t dare to ruin your sleep once you were finally found and were actually in a safe place where you would be protected with his whole life. But for now, he kept his loud snores to trick himself into thinking you’ll come and knock on his door again.


	2. Mikey’s turn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After thinking about what Raphael said during an argument with Leonardo, Mikey decides to search for you and his father in the sewers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter doesn’t have Raph in because I wanted to not only focus on him in this story. But there’s a lot of raph fluff coming soon in next chapter. 
> 
> Also Ghosty is your nickname, I didn’t want to do the generic thing of putting (Y/N) mostly because I don’t know how to implement it well like other writers.
> 
> Comments are appreciated and keep me motivated to keep writing!  
> Enjoy!

Chapter 2

Mikey’s fingers traced over the number pad, his finger barely touched the first number as he was stopped by a calm voice from across the room. 

“Where are you going.” The question was more of a demand for an answer then an actual question. Mikey turned round slowly with his skate board in hand, a nervous smile on his face. But seeing his brother’s numb expression, as if all emotion had remained left in the fighting hall, Mikey dropped his smile immediately as his head lowered slightly in defeat, knowing he was caught. 

“Going into the sewers?” Leo looked at him for a moment, letting his eyes study Mikey’s whole being before letting his stupid answer process, only then did his thoughts speak up.

“You know the sewers are dangerous now. This whole place is unstable and crawling with god knows what covered in Shredder’s foot symbol. You have no reason to be going off, especially without informing me beforehand. This isn’t time for you to be going off to find more places to play around with your skate boa-“ as Leonardo’s famous lecture started, Mikey quickly stopped him with a single sentence.

“I wanted to go find them...” That sentence alone made Leo stop for a moment. The orange bannered turtle took this chance, seeing that he actually caught his older brother’s attention, he continued to explain. “Raph was right, I feel so useless sitting here waiting for them to randomly show up. They could be anywhere and I’m still in the same place. I know it’s dangerous and that’s why I want to find them. Even if I just look for a few hours before sunrise, it would still be something.” 

The sadness wasn’t masked well as it seeped through all of Mikey’s words, it was rare for anyone to see him in such a state. He was always the hopeful one, the one that refused to drop his smile, but the loss of his dad and best friend really took a lot out of him. He was hopeful to find you both, but he was not stupid, he knew the heavy reality of the whole situation. 

With a sigh leaving his lips, the leader in blue began to speak but once again was cut off, “Mikey-“

“I miss them.” Leo couldn’t help but close his eyes as if those words cut him from the inside, he too felt the hurt of missing you and his master, his father. Leonardo would lay down his life just to get you guys back from any harms way, even though he didn’t want to seem that careless to the rest of his brothers.

“Go.” It took a moment for Mikey to realise what he heard from Leo, but as soon as it registered in his mind, the hopeful glint in his eyes and his large smile came back quickly. A genuine amazing smile, as if he was just told he had the chance to change time, was now on his face. Leo had missed it. 

As the numbers were entered in, it took a second for the hidden doors to open that lead into the sewers, but as the door opened Mikey was pulled back. It took a second but the familiar warm feeling of arms wrapped around him and his shell was more than enough to realise this was a hug, a hug he desperately needed. He fully knew he could just burst out crying right then and there but he wanted to keep it in to look tough in front of Leo. Yet that didn’t stop him from returning the hug whole heartedly.

“We will find them. Alive and safe.” Leo whispered to not only to Mikey but to himself. 

Leo’s eyes watched as his youngest brother jumped onto his skateboard, on the side of the curved sewer wall, his figure merging into the black abyss as the sound of the skateboards wheels scraped against the concrete. They echoed as he drove further away from his home.

As the doors closed Leo took it as a sign to get some shut eye, but as he was walking away with his head in thought, he tried his best to recall your face. The blue bannered turtle scolded himself for forgetting the curve of your cheeks, or the shine in bedded within your eyes. There were also a lot of questions that had grown over the years, apart from where were you and Master Splinter, like was your hair out grown long enough for you to braid it? Or was it cut short to help the foot soldiers not worry about keeping their prisoners presentable? Did you remember your favourite show, The last airbender? Was it a thing you think back to to feel a little better? 

The harsh blue light crawled from every edge of Donnie’s lab, none of it helping to hide the fact that he was once again staying up late to work on something. Shaking his head Leo walked into the room, knocking his knuckle on the open door frame. 

“Alright Donnie, time to rest up.” He gave a small smile as he leaned on his brother’s desk, looking at Donnie’s computer screen. 

“Every time I try to connect the signals from here to April’s shell cell it just cuts out, like something is in the way. It’s so annoying.” Donnie rubbed his exhausted eyes from looking at the screen too much. Unable to connect the shell cells took a toll on his sprite. He just leaned back in his rolling chair and let his body flop. 

“Hey, at least we know they aren’t in the hands of the foot. It was a good call to send them out of New York before our fight with Shredder, if they hadn’t, they would of been stuck in this apocalyptic mess.” Leo picked up a old a Rubik’s cube, starting to twist it in all directions to create a mess of colours as he spoke. 

“That’s the only good part of this situation, just hope Casey and April are surviving out there. I mean it is just an old farm house. Sure Casey grew up in that house but I just have a feeling it’s still difficult.” Donnie pulls his attention onto the multi coloured cube, watching its faces move. 

“All we can do is stick to our plan, and try not to worry about them.” As Leo stood up, he threw the Rubik’s cube to Donnie, who caught it. “You’ve done enough for today, go rest.” And with that Leo left Donnie to ponder in his mini office size work shop. 

With the nod of his head, Donatello pushed his files into a neat pile, placing trash in the trash can, and sorting out the wires to all his monitor screens. He flickered most of the screens off, letting the room fall into darkness without that blue glow from the screens to light everything up. Leaving only one on. The screen showed their security cameras around the sewers, keeping an eye for introducers. With a sigh Donnie placed down the now sorted Rubik’s cube down onto his desk, before taking his leave with a stretch of his limbs. 

Yet had he stayed for a moment longer, he would have seen his youngest brother pass by one of the cameras heading in the direction of one of the off-limits sewer tunnels.

Meanwhile with Michelangelo, the tips of his fingers brushed against the filthy walls of the sewers as he rode on his skateboard down one of the forbidden tunnels. There were many sewer tunnels that were named the forbidden ones, mostly because Master Splinter always told them as children to stay away from them because of how dangerous it was. Yet having already searched most of the familiar sewers, he wanted to take a chance and see if he could find something there. All he knew about that place was that the entrance was sealed off by old rotting boards, in all honesty, those boards had been up since they were only children, meaning time took a toll on them. 

As he was nearing he could see a familiar red warning sign hanging above the entrance. But something was different, his eyes caught the sight of the wooden planks now layed on the sewer floor, caught in the steady stream of dirty water. 

“Well this doesn’t look so good.” His foot stomped on the edge of his board, letting it flip up into his arm. Resting the skateboard onto the side of the entrance, he took a mental note that this would be easier to get when coming back then to taking it with him, he didn’t plan to go far, alone that is. 

After crawling through the new created entrance way, he made his way through the tunnel, looking around for any clues to see if anything or anyone had been here before him. 

“Hellooooo? Master splinter? Ghostyyyy? Daaaad? Baby cakes?” His voice called down the long tunnel, only hearing his echo reply to his calls. After walking for about five minutes without finding anything, he suddenly felt something. A wet furry feeling brush against his ankle, Mikey jumped up high, yelling like a school girl at the sudden scare he received. 

The black eyed rat looked up at him for a moment, stopping in his tracks to make eye contact. It’s little hand scratching behind its ear. It took a few seconds before Mikey laughed to himself realising it was just a rat, his whole body came out of his tense jumped pose, relaxing. 

“Awww what a cute guy,” he leaned down onto his knee as he reached out and stroked the rat’s head, “I’m going to call you… Maxalotal the third!” 

The rat leaned into Mikey’s touch, before being picked up and placed onto the turtle’s shoulder.  
“Hang tight there buddy.” 

Mikey finally saw what looked to be an opening, the sound of rushing water growing near as he walked closer.  
“What do we have here little buddy?” Mikey leaned his head out to looked below him, he saw a familiar site of multiple tunnels just like the one he was standing in, but with them all having rushing water, all being disposed out into a big open circular section below him, this was one of the places where all the neighborhoods dirty water would all end up, and then be filtered to be sent to the water recycling plant. The water falls down below into the open section, creating a site of five waterfalls, a mist like look created just on the surface where the water hits. 

The only reason his tunnel wasn’t being flooded was because of the fact that the city wanted to repair it at one point, but then grew lazy and grew out of money. 

However, when the turtle looked below, expecting to see the dirty water, he saw a brand new looking metal platform built to stick up above the water. It was a circular shape, far from the edges of the wall to let the flow of the waterfalls to continue. It looked as if the platform was made up by parts, all having a purple liquid substance flowing between the edges of every piece.

The worst part of it all, was Mikey and maxalotal weren’t alone. 

Spikes cut through the dirty water letting the dark green scales trail past, it’s low growl was quiet compared to the loud roar of the water heaving down. However that didn’t make its red eyes any less haunting as they trailed along the surface. 

His eyes grew wide with fear, a lump grew in his throat seeing the beast’s tail. Immediately the fear struck Mikey turned on his heels running down the tunnel in a panic, desperate to get home to tell the others about what he had found. He knew whatever had the Shredder’s symbol painted on its surface was never a good thing, especially if it was being guarded by a mutant. 

“I’ve got to tell the others about this, they aren’t going to like this.” Mikey spoke as he ran, jumping and avoiding any rubbish in his path. Maxalotal, the rat, only squeaked at Mikey. 

It was a fair long ride back to the turtle hideout, but after checking if he was followed, to which thankfully he wasn’t, Mikey placed in the passcode and entered. But once having entered, he realised he must have been the only one left awake. After thinking the cons and pros of telling Leo now, Mikey decided that it would be best to tell Leo in the morning, especially after he ate so he would be in a good mood. 

“This is not so shell-tasitic little buddy,” Mikey’s finger rubbed the head of his new pet friend, “not so good…”


	3. One step forward

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Raphael's mind keeps drifting to you. But now it was time for them all to take a step forward and start moving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be uploading one chapter every week. This one is longer than all the others so I hope you like it. If anyone has any questions please don't be afraid to ask in the comments. Also im sorry for anyone upset about the reader not being in the story so far, i promise you'll come into the story soon.

Chapter 3

_“What happened?!”_

_“Nothing, now get off my shell!”_

_“Raphael!”_

_He stopped, frozen as he heard you call his name. His finger traced over the leather wrapped around the handle of the sais, his eyes looked down, staring at it sitting in its usual place in his belt. But this time, it’s cool metal was not visible, had it been hidden underneath the dark, red, thick liquid._

_“So I knocked some thug’s smirk right off his face, he will be fine, nothing more than a small wound.” His thick Brooklyn accent stuck to each one of his words._

_“You big doofus! You bloody scared me.” You yelled as you walked past him, hitting him in the arm with as much strength as you could as you pasted, but the impact did nothing to his massive toned muscles curving down his arm. Raph’s eyes rolled as a small smile grew on his face as he watched you sit down on the bench press._

_“It’s not hard to scare you Ghosty” He couldn’t help but tease you, it always amused him with the way you would pull a face when you were teased. The crinkle of your nose and the frown of your brow and the small pucker of your lips always got a snicker out of him._

_“You don’t scare me.” Your lips curled into a small smile as his steps grew nearer to you. The tall green mutant turtle towered over you, his figure becoming a silhouette as his shell covered the light shining in your direction. Heat created from his large breaths caressed your face as he leaned down._

_Raph’s voice fell deep, threatening like as a low growl grew deep in his throat. His teeth snarled out, as if he was ready to attack his prey. “Not scared of the green mutant freak?”_

_“You’re no freak.” You saw right past his acting, showing not a single drop of fear, you had always felt like safe with Raph no matter what. Once he caught on that you weren’t buying his act he stood back up._

_“Right. And you’re the queen of England.” His sarcasms flew between his smile as he suddenly picked you up. He helped you swing onto the back of his shell, giving you a piggyback ride as he held your legs tightly against his hips._

_“Hey! I’m serious!” You tried to seem serious but the laughter threw that out the window, your arms quickly wrapped around his neck as you rested your chin on his shoulder. He swung in every direction, even jumping as you latched onto him tightly. Your laughter was quickly joined with his own._

_“Cowabunga!” Both of you yelled, hearts full of joy._

Raph’s mind found it’s place back to the present as the memory of you two in the dojo faded before him. He had stared into the room, letting the memory play out before him like a movie filled with warm bright colors, but as soon as reality set in, they faded, letting the room fall back to cold harsh shades. There were no more lit candles, ready for meditation. No more laughter filled hours. Not even an urge to train. You were gone. With a sigh, he turned away, deciding it would be best to try and distract himself elsewhere.

The not so quiet discussion caught the attention of him and his older brother Donnie, making their paths end at the kitchen where Leo and Mikey were discussing something. To which Leo told them both to hear out. But after disagreeing to stay to listen, Raph headed straight for his helmet.

“Raph can you just stay to hear what Mikey has to say?” Leo spoke up, his eyes catching his hot headed brother, grabbing a hold of his motorcycle helmet, obviously not wanting to take part of any of this. Raph just wanted to get out. The desire to be able to be out of their lair was growing as his mind played with the lingering memory he was thinking about before. Their home just grew so silent sometimes, it felt almost suffocating, but no one would really notice until another heated argument between the two brothers would happen, only then did the air become heavy.

“You guys can handle it, I’m going out.” Raph waved his hand to dismiss their plea, having his back still facing them all.

“I found foot.” Everyone turned silent as all the attention fell on Mikey sitting at the dinner table, mostly shocked expressions from the three. His new little friend sat near his hand, nibbling on a piece of old stale bread, mindlessly attending to his own business.

“You’re telling me, knucklehead here found our enemy in the sewers nearby?” Raph chirped up, walking closer to the table to hear the rest of the information. All other thoughts vanished in an instant.

“Last night when I was searching for Dad and Ghosty. I kinda, well, sorta headed into one of the forbidden tunnels.” Mikey smiled nervously knowing full well he wasn’t supposed to be there.

“Those tunnels are off limits for a reason Mikey!” Donnie yelled after hitting his brother in the back of the head, to knock some sense into him.

“Ow! I know!” The orange turtle rubs his head with a small pout on his lips. “But we’ve already searched everywhere else, I wanted to see if there was any possibility of them being there. But instead I found Maxalotal here, and then we both found this sort of weird sci-fi themed metal platform with the foot symbol painted on it. We saw this creature too. It was lurking in the sewer water, it looked like a mutant. I came back but you guys were out cold already so I couldn’t say anything.”

“I’m surprised, Mikey actually for once didn’t screw up and did the logical thing.” Raph crossed his arms as he processed everything Mikey said. Secretly and silently appreciating his youngest brother’s effort in joining in on his hunt for you and his father.

“Hey!”

“Donnie, Mikey will take you to that place again, I need you to examine it, see what it actually is and if we really do need to be worried. I don’t like that they are so close to us. We do not need things screwing up our plan. It’s going to be big, especially if Shredder needs a mutant to guard it. Me and Raph will go up top to keep searching for Ghosty and Master splinter. But only go when it’s dark. We all know the foot love snooping around during the day.” Leonardo ordered, receiving firm nods from the two. However Raph had other plans.

“Whoa whoa. Whoa! I don’t need a babysitter.” He protested, but his attempt to go against his brother’s order failed.

“Do you want to find them or not? It’s best if we go as a pair.” Leo had a point, his brother only let out a low small growl before placing the helmet down.

“Fine, but you follow me.”

“Alright.”

Once they headed up top, two brothers began their search.

Their eyes fell upon their broken New York, a perfect view of all the buildings that remained laid below them, it was hard to see where the jungle of buildings became a blur of greys, blacks and hues of whites. Yet through it all, they were grateful that the red painted symbol of the Shredder scattered on all buildings, was consumed by the colorless, neutral hues. Stood on top of an out of use office building, the two boys mumbled to one another about where they had already searched, as the season definitely made itself present within the chilly upcoming winter wind that flew and whistled in between their calm conversation.

“Where are they?..” Leo called out into the world, not expecting to hear an answer, it was more of a question to himself. Stupidly, he expected to pull out some sort of hidden answer, as if he could magically know where part of his family were. But the universe never gave him an easy time before, and it wasn't going to start then either.

“I'm not going to give up bro.” Leo looked down to see his brother, sitting on the cold frost coated concrete, staring out with a dim but noticeable look of solidarity in his eyes, his legs carelessly hanging off the edge of the building as if it was a normal playground swing.

“None of us will. I promise.” The leader in blue tried his best to give a comforting smile, even though his brother wasn’t looking at him, he knew Raph could feel it.

“As Master Splinter would say, ‘you must trust in Leonardo-son’” Raph tried his best to impersonate his father’s voice whilst bowing his head. It got a chuckle out of Leo, shaking his head slightly as he could clearly imagine Master Splinter saying such a thing.

“‘Raphael do not question your brother, the ways of the ninja must include trust in your leader.’” Leonardo joined in with his own impersonation of their Sensei, causing them both to laugh a little more, with a genuine feeling lighted in their chests.

“‘ Michelangelo! Get your feet off the coffee table!’” Raph added, letting the moment last a little longer as their laughter continued. By the time their laughter stopped they both couldn’t wipe their smiles off their lips. A bittersweet taste of home.

“Then he would ask Ghosty and April for green tea whilst we all got two extra hours of training.” They both shuddered at the mention of their extra training hours. To you it was always funny seeing them all exhausted by the end of the training day. One time Mikey actually fell asleep on Donnie in the Dojo after he collapsed onto his knees in the most dramatical fashion. During his dramatic fall Mikey began to scream ‘the light! I’m heading for the light! Donnie! Tell the leftover pizza in the fridge that she was the most beautiful thing created on this earth!’ To which then he got a flick to the head from his oldest brother Leo. You could never help but laugh at them all but also feel a bit of pity, they worked hard and they sure as hell were exhausted, but Mikey’s theatrical piece was very adorable. And hard to forget, even if all was just a year ago.

Raph thought back to those moments a lot, when he would come out all sore and coated in a thick layer of sweat. The sight of you laughing and making light of the situation always made him determined to somehow make you have to join in with their punishments. That being said, he made sure that would be the case by coming over with his huge signature smirk on his lips, already seeing your eyes widen and hearing you yell for him to stay back. But then hugging you anyway, letting all that built up sweat get smeared onto every inch of you. The brothers all took their turn to laugh at you, you would quickly join in after coming to terms that you were as sweat covered as they were. It didn’t help that Raph was the biggest and tallest out of them all, meaning he sweat a lot more.

“Hey, we haven’t checked the aquarium. If we are lucky, we could potentially catch our cousin.” Playfully Leo suggested popping his brother’s train of thought, which caused Raph to snicker at the mention of seeing a turtle swimming around in an aquarium.

“Not a bad call, fearless leader.” Raph smirked at the sudden idea that sprung up in his mind. “I’ll race you, last one there washes dishes for a week!” And just like that, the hot head in red pushed himself off the edge of the building. After realizing what his brother just declared, Leo jumped down immediately, quickly trying to catch up on lost time.

Meanwhile, Donnie and Mikey navigated down the dark tunnels. Taking extra caution at every turn due to the foot lurking earlier that day, their eyes never staying on one spot too long, weapons gripped tightly in their hands.

“We have to be careful, we can never be too sure we are alone.” Donnie’s voice lowered, trying his best to keep control on the echo that called back on every word, whilst also trying to communicate with his goofball of a brother.

“Dude, I’m starting to think that the Shredder isn’t actually looking for us anymore.” Mikey copied the volume of Donatello as his mind began to collect and stitch theories together.

“What makes you say that?” As their conversation continued, they finally made their way to the entrance of the tunnel Mikey had visited the previous day. They squeezed through the small gap between the remaining planks of wood, the familiar entrance sign hanging above. Donatello’s shell scraped against the edge of the wood, it made getting through a little more annoying but not impossible, the sound making the mutants cringe. Immediately after, mikey followed, but since he was the shortest, he could slip past with ease.

“Well, if we haven’t defeated him before, he doesn’t really see us a threat. I mean he has a whole army of foot under his control, I don’t think he fears four teenage mutant ninja turtles running around New York's stink dump.” Mikey scratched his head with the handle of his weapon as the train of thought spiraled deeper down the rabbit hole.

“That does sound reasonable. It would be a relief and we could use that to our advantage. However, if that is the case, why is he snooping around the sewers?” The opening was coming in view, which gave Mikey the chance to comment a quick “Deja vu much.” To which a playful eye roll was given.

Once their eyes peered over the edge, the reality of what was told before at the dinner table came to life.

“Whoa..” Never had they seen such an extraterrestrial looking structure before. Mikey was right in describing it as something from a sci-fi comic book. It was interesting, at first glance the turtle in purple couldn't even begin to analyze what was below him. Suddenly Mickey's hand pressed against the tall genius’s plastron, had it not been for the light impact, Donnie wouldn't have realized his body was leaning forward towards the drop. The structure drew his curiosity in as if it was a siren calling out to a sea traveler.

“We are going closer.”  
“Are you crazy?! Since when am I the sensible one, bro?!” Michelangelo called out, too late to take back, he had realized his mistake when remembering that in fact they were not alone in here and that he probably gave away their advantage of stealth by yelling. _Ah shell.._

Yet as they held their breath and waited for the loud growl of the beast lurking somewhere to emerge, nothing was heard, except the water flowing. Having no proof of the beast being present, Donnie took this chance and took a few steps back before charging his body into a leap, using his staff to push him off the edge. His landing was no trouble and almost silent. Seeing the success of his brother's jump, Mikey didn't take another second to think about following his lead, he already broke out in his own run up leading to a jump. There was no chance he would leave his brother alone in there.

Whilst Donnie began his examination by pushing down his magnifying goggles and looking more intensely into the metal, mumbling to himself all the metal types it could be, Mikey decided to keep watch by the edge. But something didn't feel right, almost as if someone's interest was glued onto his scaled covered green skin.

“This is so fascinating, I've never seen anything like this..” The purple color coded turtle pulled out a multi purpose pocket knife, using it to scrape just a few metal flakes into a small plastic zip lock bag.

Keeping watch did prove to be boring, but Mikey couldn't complain, not after wishing it stayed that way. Instead his hand instantly grabbed a hold of his nunchucks, whirring the other end in a circle ready. His blue eyes took quick glances at Donnie and then back to the water, hoping that he would be done soon. This place made him uneasy, and with good reason.

The filthy waste filled water below him moved suddenly in its opposite direction, as if it was fighting its own current. For a moment, he had hoped his eyes were playing a trick when he saw the familiar scaled tail cut through the water. Not wanting it to leave his sight, the turtle in the orange bandanna walked around the platform's edge following alongside the disturbance in the water, it was circling around them.

“Donnie.” Mikey tried to rip his brother's attention from their new discovery, but failed as the soft murmurs of different long scientific words kept slipping past Donnie’s mouth. Mikey quickly grew desperate as the beast took his guarding duty one step further. A long claw covered in large mold green nails dug into the concrete with ease, puncturing five holes. A second hand quickly followed its lead. It was coming.

The large beast resembling an alligator, a likely chance a mutant experiment by the Shredder’s minions, broke through the surface of the water, letting all the droplets ripple down every single scale that embedded on his skin. It’s tail flailing around uncontrollably like a dog discovering its new play toys in its cage. A long tongue slipped out its cage of teeth, coating eager lips with saliva. It was starved. Hungry for turtle meat. The desire to rip open their shells and eat every last piece of turtle left, was painted on his face, alongside its crazed eyes.

“Big, ugly and scary is here Donnie! And I don't want to stay for dinner!” Mikey stumbled back towards Don, his stare never breaking away from the beast on the wall as it finally came level to the platform.

“Ah ha. Just a sec Mikey.” It didn't seem to process immediately in Don’s mind about the situation happening behind him. His mind was too focused on taking pictures of this place, so that he could examine it better at the lair. But his ignorance wasn't enough to make Mikey stop calling out to him, it got to him, annoyed the turtle looked over his shoulder still with the camera in hand and his eye pressed against the viewfinder. That's when the heavy reality hit, the moment he saw what got Mikey so riled up through the camera, there really was a mutant beast and they really didn't want to find out how well he could digest food.

The beast jumped onto the platform on all fours, but quickly stood up with its broad shoulders, giving the illusion that it was growing in size. The beast’s shadow grew along the floor, crawling over and engulfing the turtles rather quickly. A mighty growl rumbled in its throat as it swung his claws down towards the two mutants. However, before the long claw of nails could rip open their skin to reveal crimson muscle, Donnie rolled forward, getting out of its reach by a single hair. Mikey on the other hand jumped up, letting his nunchucks hit the beast's head with as much force as he could on the way back down. This did little to nothing but anger the ugly mutated alligator.

Using his ninja reflexes, Donnie managed to sweep past the alligator, now stood behind it. However before being able to hit him in the back of the neck with his staff, the alligator’s tail flicked up, hitting Donnie straight in the side. His whole body was flung, flying towards the edge of the platform, but managed to land luckily before he could fall down. However, the camera flew out of his belt, sliding across away from him and towards the edge, threatening to fall to its demise. A sharp pain quickly grew in his body, causing him to feel paralyzed for a few seconds, his hand clutching his aching side. Shaking sharp breaths filled his lungs through gritted teeth, that was for sure going to leave a bruise. Mikey saw he was the only one being able to fight currently, he tried his best to stall some time to let his older brother catch his breath and balance. With another attempt in attacking the mutant, his nunchuck wrapped around the beast’s wrist, but Mikey judged his strength against the beast too generously. The beast pulled him up off the floor, dangling him by his weapon. Mikey’s foot instantly smashed against his nose, making the beast release Mikey and stumble back, holding his nose in agony with his eyes squeezed shut.

“Mikey! The camera!” Donnie yelled as he pulled himself up using his staff, leaning on it for support. The tail of the beast had managed to hit the camera as it was stumbling back in pain. Mikey instantly ran after it, leaping off the edge of the structure and falling after the camera before it could have the chance to hit the water. Luckily his long three fingered hand caught it, his other arm instantly extending up and making his nunchuck wrap around a nail screwed into the support beam of the structure, and actually managing to catch himself, dangling there for a moment he let himself sigh in relief.

Donotello tried his best to keep the beast distracted, constantly trying to attack him from every direction. The beast was becoming restless, and more agitated by the second, they had to get out fast. Whilst Don was fighting the mutant, his youngest brother managed to pull himself up back on top of the platform. Both brothers took turns in striking the hungry beast, this gave Donnie the chance to look for a potential escape route.

One of the tunnels, pouring out a heavy stream of water just above all the rest, was their best way out of this mess. It would be hard to reach, but it was their only way, knowing the beast couldn't reach that high up with gravity battling him. After giving a glance to Mikey and the tunnel, the turtle in orange caught on to the plan. Both giving a firm nod in confirmation of the plan, there was no time for hesitation.

They both gave themselves a run up, heading straight for the beast. Both letting a powerful full force kick to the mutants back. Causing it to stumble forward onto his knees, this gave the brothers the chance to use him as a boost up to the tunnel. Mikey went first, pushing off the scale covered alligator’s back and jumping up towards the tunnel. He barely caught himself on the edge of the opening, the water ploughed down against his face and body, making his shoulder muscles ache as he tried to pull up his body. After climbing inside he lifted his arms in a short victory.

“Shell yeah!” he yelled with a huge grin on his face.

Donnie was next, he too used the beast as a boost up, but he failed to give himself a proper run up due to the beast already trying to stand back up to continue the fight. Causing him to realize mid air that he wasn't going to get all the way there unlike his brother. Instantly Don held out his staff for Mikey to catch.

With a tight grip, Mikey held the other end of the staff, his heels digging into the ground as he used all of his strength to make sure that he wouldn't fall forward in the process. His teeth gritted tightly as all his muscles screamed in pain from all the powered hits he got in their fight minutes ago.

Like a piece of bait hooked on a fishing rod, waiting for a fish to bite, Donnie dangled in the air. The beast waited upon the platform eyeing them, a roar of anger was enough for both of them to catch on that the alligator wasn't done with them.

A death like grip on the staff, Don tried to shuffle up the wood towards Mikey. But it was easier said than done.  
Suddenly, it was as if someone stole his breath, draining most of the color from his green skin as he paled. Life played in slow motion. The view of the tunnel, along with Michelangelo reaching out for him, grew further away with every pound of his heart ringing in his ears, the sound over powering the scream of his brother.

The staff had snapped.

**Author's Note:**

> currently there will be a few days longer wait for chapter 4 due to collage work i need to be prioritizing, sorry for the hassle guys. i will still be replying to comments.


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